“I was leaving the South to fling myself into the unknown . . . I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns and, perhaps, to bloom.”

Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns is a profound and vivid work that describes the exodus of some six million Black Americans who left the South to escape the horrors of Jim Crow from 1915 to 1970, resettling and beginning anew in Northern, Midwestern, and Western cities. Jacob Lawrence, an American painter and the first of his family to be born outside the South, understood this journey and captured it in his artistic offerings.  

In 1940, he received a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation to create a 60-panel epic, The Migration of the Negro (now known as The Migration Series); when the series was exhibited at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery the following year, the then 23-year-old artist catapulted to national acclaim.

Now owned jointly by New York’s Museum of Modern Art and The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C, “this epic series dramatically depicts the post–World War I migration of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North.”

These paintings are the inspiration for The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence, a work we experienced this week. We joined an enthusiastic and packed house at Washington’s Arena Stage to immerse ourselves in the “divine and daring” dancers of Step Afrika! The group had the audience clapping polyrhythms, participating in call-and-response choruses, and swaying in our seats and on our feet throughout. It was a treat for body and soul.

Weaving dance and music into six distinct yet connective stories, The Migration begins with Drum Call and continues through Chicago, each explained in the evening’s program. All were moving and evocative, but I was especially taken with Wade Suite.

Wade shows the continuity in African and African American percussive dance traditions by blending the South African Gumboot Dance, tap, and stepping with the African American spiritual.

Wade In the Water, rendered by a beautiful quartet during this segment, is among the most beloved of those spirituals. The troupe gave a soulful performance of the tune in both song and dance.

Because no video or audio exists of their performance, I’m highlighting three versions here, the first simple and straightforward, showcasing the song’s structure and lyrics. The second is by the incomparable Staple Singers. Finally, jazz master Ramsey Lewis, who passed on September 12, 2022 at the age of 87, has an instrumental version that showcases the harmonic and melodic possibilities of this timeless tune. The live version here is more of a stripped-down take than the studio original.

The Trane Suite, opening the second act, was another beautiful segment in The Migration. Here’s how the program describes this three-movement story:

Throughout the Great Migration, the train was an important means of transporting people to the North. The entire railroad industry recruited heavily in the South and thus, economically, became a primary means of African American’s “one-way ticket” to a new life. Named in reference to John Coltrane and paying homage to Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” Trane is a journey in three parts, following the story of the Great Migration.

The soundtrack for this segment is entitled Trane and the original recording was by William E. Smith, the jazz artist and composer.

Step Afrika! will be performing this version of The Migration throughout the United States this summer and fall. Catch this show if you can. And take a look at the group’s promotional video to see more of their work.

More to come . . .

DJB